Far Cry 4’s Visual Differences Between PS4/Xbox One and Old Gen Consoles Explained; PC Is Lead Platform

Far Cry 4 will be a cross platform game, which leads many to wonder what kind of differences we’ll see between the new-gen version on PC, Xbox One and PS4 and the old-gen version on Xbox 360 and PS3. Creative director Alex Hutchinson explained what we can expect during a chat on Major Nelson’s Podcast.

Hutchinson mentioned that the studio wanted the gameplay experience to be the same on old gen and current gen, but the new generation version’s visuals will be much improved, also explaining that PC is the lead platform this time around:

Everything you see, whether it’s the fur on the animals, the grass on the ground or the leaves on the trees… All these things are bumped up a huge amount in the next gen version.

Hutchinson explained that the game is developed first on PC as the lead platform, unlike other Ubisoft games like Assassin’s Creed, which is developed on console first, which means that the developer starts on consoles and then tries to push their boundaries as hard as he can. Due to that, gamers have never really seen something similar to the “ultra-high PC version” on consoles before.

On the other hand, since Far Cry 4 is developed on PC first, the graphical fidelity of the PC version can simply be poured into the new generation console versions:

So even out of the box, even day one, when we just stuck the code on the new consoles, we were able to dial it all the way up. So as a console player you’re already getting by far the best version we can ship.

That’s definitely good news for PS4 and Xbox One owners, but PC gamers also have a reason to rejoice.

Ubisoft isn’t exactly well known for the quality of its ports from consoles to PC, especially in the realm of optimization. Far Cry 4 shouldn’t suffer from that kind of problems.

Hailing from sunny (not as much as people think) Italy and long standing gamer since the age of Mattel Intellivision and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Definitely a multi-platform gamer, he still holds the old dear PC nearest to his heart, while not disregarding any console on the market.
RPGs (of any nationality) and MMORPGs are his daily bread, but he enjoys almost every other genre, prominently racing simulators, action and sandbox games.
He is also one of the few surviving fans of the flight simulator genre on Earth.